AraratBank and Urartu FC partner to bring financial literacy to young athletes
AraratBank has taken its youth financial education drive onto the football field, staging its first athlete-focused session with trainees from Urartu Football Club as part of a one-year partnership between the two organizations. For nearly two years, the bank has delivered interactive financial literacy lessons for young people at summer camps, festivals and via podcasts.
The latest session marked the first time the program was tailored to athletes, bringing together children of AraratBank employees and Urartu’s youth players for a workshop led by Ara Chalabyan, an AraratBank board member and finance lecturer at the American University of Armenia.
Chalabyan used the structure of a football team to explain basic money concepts: the goalkeeper as savings, defenders as smart spending, forwards as leisure and midfielders as the arena for the most critical financial decisions. He said the emphasis was on practical skills, adding that the children showed a solid grasp of essential spending and saving and likely discuss these topics at home.
From the club’s side, Urartu’s Head of Marketing, Robert Mkhitaryan, said the partnership aims to support the holistic development of the next generation. Beyond presenting each organization’s activities, he said, the two sides are working together on social initiatives that benefit children, and he highlighted the value of cross-sector collaboration.
Anna Allahverdyan, Head of Communication and CSR Programs Coordination Division at AraratBank, called the session a standout in the bank’s slate of social programs, which also spans healthcare, environmental protection and education.
After nearly two years of outreach, she said the team was impressed by how prepared the children were and by the questions they asked, expressing the view that such training could help them be more cautious in their financial activities and better protected against fraud in the future.
Following the workshop, the children and trainees took to the pitch for a practice session, putting teamwork and decision-making into play alongside the finance lessons.